Parental Involvement Made Mandatory

A recent New York Times article speaks of Adelante Dual Language Academy in San Jose that requires parental involvement in schools. So not only are the students rated on their performance, parents are rated on theirs too!

According to one of the trustees of the San Jose school, there is an attempt being made by the school to create “a culture of strong parent-guardian-family participation”. Even other schools in the area are considering the families of the students to perform a certain number of hours of volunteer work each year.

In general you could say that parental involvement in school activities and children’s education is an excellent thing and many are in favor of such an idea requiring mandatory involvement and participation from parents.

However, if you require parents to help out in schools, is this in fact an indication of a resource crunch in the schools?

Others on the hand advocate that rather than have parents volunteer in schools it would be better to engage with parents in matters of the child’s curriculum and even perhaps provide academic training to the parents for subjects such as reading and math. Opponents also argue that this would place additional burdens on already burdened parents.